Gaza Genocide16 July, 20263 min read
Gaza Assault Kills 22 After Israeli Raid on Mosque in Rafah
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Al-Qassam Brigades released battlefield footage from Gaza, including Beit Hanoun. Footage highlights field commanders Imran Abu Ouda and Rubin Yusuf al-Nuno.
Rafah assault deaths
A Gaza assault on a mosque in Rafah killed 22 people, according to L'Humanité, which said the raid targeted a group that had taken refuge inside and proclaimed the creation of an « Émirat islamique ». L'Humanité traced the episode to the end of the Friday prayer at the mosque Ibn Taymiya in Rafaf in the south of the bande de Gaza, and said the group’s spiritual leader, Abdelatif Moussa, decreed « la naissance de l’Émirat islamique ».
The BBC reported that Hamas’s war against Israel has involved multiple weapons, including a 105-mm Yasin anti-tank missile shown aiming at Israeli Merkava tanks in Gaza, and said Hamas seized the Gaza Strip on October 7 to launch an attack that killed 1,200 Israelis and brought more than 240 hostages back to Gaza. The BBC added that since then, Israeli airstrikes and the ground invasion of Gaza have killed more than 23,000 Palestinians, while the Israel Defense Forces say they have killed 8,000 Hamas fighters, and Israel says 187 of its soldiers have been killed so far in Gaza.
Elimination claim and clashes
On August 31, tv5monde said the Israeli Defense Minister, Israel Katz, stated that the Hamas armed wing spokesman Abou Obeida had been 'eliminated' in Gaza in an Israeli army strike, and it quoted Katz’s X post saying: "The Hamas terrorist spokesperson Abou Obeida has been eliminated in Gaza".
tv5monde also reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed an army strike against the Hamas spokesman before the weekly cabinet, saying, "we have carried out a strike against the Hamas spokesman (...) Abou Obeida".
In parallel, the BBC described Hamas’s weapons and said the Yasin 105 missile is fired from a Russian-made rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launcher, with former Egyptian Army brigadier-general Samir Ragheb describing the dual-warhead design as a major innovation.
The BBC further said military experts estimate Hamas has a substantial stock of at least 2,000 Yasin 105 missiles, while the Israel Defense Forces say they have killed 8,000 Hamas fighters without providing proof, and Hamas has not responded to the allegation.
Tunnels, tanks, and stakes
L'Opinion framed Gaza as a battlefield where Israeli forces are entering Khan Yunis and Al-Bureij, describing the occupying tanks as collapsing like dominoes as the resistance engages in violent clashes. The BBC’s forensic account tied Hamas’s battlefield claims to specific systems, saying the Yasin 105 appears in videos released by the al-Qassam Brigades since the start of the Israeli ground offensive, where it is shown aiming at Israeli Merkava tanks in Gaza.
In Gaza, the Palestinian Information Center said the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades documented field commander Rubin Yusuf al-Nuno’s participation in resisting Israeli forces advancing in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, and it reported that al-Nuno identified the location of a tank and directed the use of a locally made 105mm Yasin shell. The Palestinian Information Center also quoted al-Nuno during the battles in Gaza City: "The soldiers are rows and rows, full of rows, strike the tank, the soldiers in front of you, strike the soldiers," while the BBC reported that Israeli airstrikes and the ground invasion have killed more than 23,000 Palestinians and that Israel says 187 of its soldiers have been killed so far in Gaza.